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National NewsConservative News
Movie to Pay Tribute to Black Brothers in Arms
By Gary Palmer
Posted on: February 6, 2006
When it comes to the contribution of black soldiers to the Allied victory in World War II, Hollywood has produced few movies that do justice to their service. In fact, in terms of a major feature film that really focuses on black American soldiers in combat, nothing comes to mind.
That is about to change.
This summer DreamWorks Pictures should be releasing a movie about the 761st Tank Battalion known as the "Black Panthers," the first black armored unit to see action in World War II. The movie script is based on Brothers in Arms, a book by former NBA All-Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and co-writer Anthony Walton and is being co-produced by Abdul-Jabbar and the academy awarding winning actor Morgan Freeman. Gregory Allen Howard, who was the scriptwriter for the movie Remember the Titans, will handle the script writing.
Even though black soldiers had served the United States with skill and courage in every war from the American Revolution to World War I, they still faced discrimination. For instance, while over 400,000 black Americans served in our armed services during World War I, the U.S. military refused to allow them to serve in combat. Black soldiers were finally given the opportunity to fight after being transferred to serve with French forces. Fighting under French command, the 369th Infantry Regiment "Harlem Hellfighters" achieved a stellar combat record.
Despite the accomplishments of "Harlem Hellfighters" and even though the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 required that "…there shall be no discrimination against any person on account of race and color," the armed forces of the United States remained segregated and black Americans were still assigned to non-combat roles and forced to serve in segregated units under white officers.
However, Lt. General Leslie J. McNair, the chief of the U.S. Army ground forces, saw America's black citizens as an important source of manpower that the nation could not afford to ignore. Gen. McNair pushed for putting black soldiers into combat and he was the primary proponent of allowing blacks to serve in armored units despite resistance from many top level American politicians and military officers.
As a result of McNair's efforts, the 761st Tank Battalion was activated in March, 1942. Among the few black officers in the 761st was Lt. Jackie Robinson, the first black Major League baseball player. Because he was court-martialed, but later acquitted, for refusing to move to the back of a bus, Robinson never saw combat.
The "Black Panthers" were assigned to the 3rd Army under the command of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton. In his welcoming speech, Patton said, "Men, you're the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never have asked for you if you weren't good. I have nothing but the best in my Army. I don't care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Kraut (expletive deleted.) Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to you. Don't let them down and damn you, don't let me down!"
Patton need not have worried. The 761st soon lived up to the battalion's motto "Come Out Fighting."
The Black Panthers spearheaded a number of Patton's moves toward Germany including being the first American unit to break through the Siegfried Line and they were one of the first, if not the first, American unit to link up with the Russian Army at the Enns River at Steyr, Austria. The 761st endured 183 days of combat without being pulled from the line and over that time they inflicted 130,000 casualties on the Germans while enduring a casualty rate of almost 50 percent with the loss of 71 tanks.
Despite his complimentary words, Gen. Patton had doubts about using black men in armored units. Patton's doubts were consistent with the doubts and/or prejudice that persisted throughout the U.S. military hierarchy that resulted in black soldiers and black units not receiving the recognition that was due them. Consequently, the accomplishments of the 761st were largely unrecognized until 1978, when the battalion finally received a Presidential Unit Citation, over three decades after the war. And it would be another 19 years before Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers, who was killed in action on November 19, 1944, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1997.
It is a shame that so few people know about the distinguished service of the 761st Tank Battalion or those of other black soldiers and sailors. And it is a shame that in the sixty-one years since the end of World War II, Hollywood is just now making a movie about them. The collaboration of Freeman and DreamWorks studios will help correct that this summer. Hopefully the movie will be a blockbuster that will bring national attention to the valor and sacrifice of the men of the 761st. It is long overdue.
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